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Illinois Holocaust Museum Reopens in Skokie After Yearlong Renovation, Adding Chicago Rescue Story and Reflection Space
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie reopens Wednesday after a yearlong renovation, featuring a new auditorium, expanded galleries, and a recently uncovered story of a Chicago businessman who helped Jews flee Nazi Germany.
SKOKIE â The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center will reopen its doors Wednesday after more than a year of renovations, unveiling new exhibits, a larger auditorium and a reflection gallery designed to give visitors space to process what they have seen.
The Skokie museum closed for the remodel and will welcome the public back with faster security screening, restrooms on every floor, wider walkways and a new 260-seat auditorium. CEO Bernard Cherkasov said the upgraded space offers 40% more usable seats than the previous auditorium and is state of the art in acoustics, sound and lighting.
âWhen the world feels in crisis, people look to history for lessons on resilience, on survival, on how to navigate tough times,â Cherkasov said.
Among the new exhibits is a little-known Chicago chapter of Holocaust history. Businessman Leo Edelman used the access he had to help Jews fleeing Germany, a story that remained unknown until his family discovered documents in an attic well after his death, according to Cherkasov.
Another exhibit broadens the museumâs focus to the millions of Jews and non-Jews killed by the Nazis. Cherkasov noted that while the Nazi regime was centrally obsessed with murdering Jews, it also targeted gay men and lesbians, Roma and Sinti, Black Germans, people with disabilities, Slavic people, religious objectors and political opponents.
The museum also added a reflection gallery along the exhibition route. âI think this is fabulous because sometimes you just need to center yourself,â said Holocaust survivor Sharon Pitluk Silver.
Pitluk Silver, who survived as a hidden child in Poland, lost her mother, father and other relatives in 1942 when she was a year old. Her uncle survived and brought her to Ohio, where he raised her. She now speaks to groups at the museum.
âThereâs so much hatred and antisemitism in the world and we donât just talk about the Holocaust, we talk about loving,â she said.
She credited the museumâs origins to survivors who settled in Skokie and organized after a group of young Nazis held a parade in the village in 1978. The institution began in a storefront and has since grown into a major educational center.
âThe museum is very important,â Pitluk Silver said. âHow wonderful that the museum has survived.â
The museumâs satellite location in downtown Chicago will remain open through the end of the year. Both locations will offer free admission Wednesday, Veterans Day, to all active and retired military members and up to four family members.